3 Car Buying Costs You Probably Haven’t Taken Into Consideration That You Really Should
Buying a new car can be an expensive process in general, but there are several costs that many people forget to factor into their budget and these 3 are arguably the most popular to be forgotten.
1. Servicing, maintenance and repair costs – Servicing your car is something that is always recommended to do on an annual basis, as it ensures that the parts of your car that are most likely to be damaged due to wear and tear are kept in the best condition possible.
Unfortunately, it can cost you a small fortune if you have a high end car and therefore if you’ve walked into, for instance, a Lamborghini dealer and are planning on buying a brand new model, you should always try and get a service agreement thrown in with the sale, as it will save you several thousands of pounds over the lifetime of the car.
In addition to servicing, you need to take into consideration the cost of repairs and maintenance. Whilst you might have been able to pick up a pair of tyres for 20 pounds each for your Citroen Saxo, the tyres on a Ferrari are going to set you back almost 1,000 pounds for the set.
2. Loan or finance interest – if you’re lucky enough to be able to purchase your car outright, you should almost always take this option. If you aren’t, then you’re going to have to make the purchase via a loan or finance agreement, which is fine for most, as it allows you to buy the car you want but spread the payments out over several years.
The problem with loans and finance is that they can often have a high APR, meaning you’ll be paying a lot more money for the car than you would be if you paid for it from your own savings.
Imagine the car you’re buying was valued at 20,000 pounds. Pay it yourself and that’s all it will cost you. Use a loan, however and taking a look at one of the UK’s major banks, NatWest and a 20,000 pound loan over 5 years would see you paying back 25,983.60 in total – that’s almost 6,000 in interest.
3. Fuel consumption – if you’re anything other than a car enthusiast or someone who looks after every penny, it’s likely that you’re the type of person who knows what fuel consumption is and that the higher your mile per gallon consumption the better, but when it comes to knowing what’s good and what’s not, as well as the financial implications, you aren’t really that clued up.
Fortunately, it’s really easy to understand and work out how much money you can save with a car that has a good MPG ratio.
As you’re likely to already know, if you have a high mile per gallon ratio, say 70 MPG, what this means is that you’re going to get 70 miles out of every gallon of petrol you put in (and for those who don’t know how much a gallon is, it’s roughly 4.5 litres).
Once you understand this basic piece of information, you start to pay a lot more attention to MPG rates, as it’s clear that if you have a low MPG, it means you need more petrol, which in turn means more money.
For instance, walk into a Smart dealership and you’ll be amazed that their ForTwo cars can achieve around 70 miles for every gallon of petrol put in. Walk into Lamborghini dealers and take a look at the Murcielago LP640, however and you’re likely to feel more than a little faint at the fact that you’ll be lucky to achieve 9 miles for every gallon of petrol.
Jardine Motors Group UK operates a large portfolio of specialist franchises of the world’s most prestigious marques, including Lamborghini dealers.
